Incestuous, But Not by Blood
by Veil of Shadows
Summary: It wasn't exactly love at first sight. Twenty things about Moses Sandor and Jay the Unseen. JayMoses.


1) It wasn't exactly love at first sight.

In Jay's opinion, Moses was a gormless, reckless idiot with a penchant for ruining other people's plans through his delusions of competency. But he was an idiot who was easy to pick on, which Jay was only happy to do...and somewhere along the way, they stopped being comrades only in the technical sense instead of the true one. (He didn't realize it, though, until Giet happened and Moses was being _stupid_, even stupider than usual, and Jay had never been so angry in his entire life.)

---

2) Moses' feelings were a little less complicated. Jay was a little punk, plain and simple, right up until he was a little punk who _cared_.

After that, he was one of Moses' people.

---

3) This has not, however, stopped him from trying to get one-up on the brat. Mostly unsuccessfully, to his continued chagrin. Jay will never let him forget.

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4) It's simple. The sky is blue. The sun rises in the east. And Jay and Moses will never, ever, ever stop arguing. ("I don't know. Maybe Nerifes could make it happen?" "Hmm," replies Shirley. "I'm not so sure about that...")

By now, the rest of the party has mostly learned to tune them out. Or make sarcastic comments about it. Senel is particularly good at this.

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5) Moses would like you to know that his feelings for Jay are completely and totally brotherly.

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6) Seriously.

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7) _Seriously._

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8) Except for the kissing. But that was totally a fluke, okay? (It was a fluke, however, which meant that Jay and Moses avoided each other for fully a week.)

---

( 9) In the end, Jay didn't put up with the label 'little brother' because of any actual attachment to it. Nor did he particularly think it was true--though he didn't think it was untrue, either. No, Jay just wasn't going to refuse the notion of having more family, stupid bandit or no.

Nevertheless, he'd gotten used to the label soon enough--in fact, just before Certain Developments came and kicked him in the face. Jay had never been a person with terribly good timing--when it came to himself, at least. Nor was he prone to self-examination, which was really where the problem lay.)

---

10) "Heh. You're both clumsy and awkward, aren't you?" Shirley said. She was smiling. "Don't worry. I know he'll come around. I mean...I know it's hard when you--really care about someone, and you have to listen to them say they only think of you as a sibling..."

Jay stared at her in abject horror. "What?"

---

11) "Muahahaha! Phase two of my ultimate plan is complete!" Norma cackled and rubbed her hands together in glee.

"Stop being an idiot, Norma. Wait, Shirley, why are we in Will's house?"

"OI, BUBBLES! LET ME OUT--"

This was the part where Jay, realization dawning on him, attempted to make his exit; unfortunately for him, Shirley was still holding onto his wrist. "Don't break anything, now, Jay!" she said, and shoved him inside as Norma held the door open.

"Wait! Shirley--"

"I hope the two of you can reach an understanding!" Shirley called in-between giggles. "When two people who are very different learn to get along, the world becomes a better place!"

"Well, Shirl," Norma said, "are we evil geniuses, or are we evil geniuses? I _told_ you JJ would never suspect you."

---

12) Silence.

"Uh." Moses cleared his throat. "Hey."

"Shut up, bandit."

"What, me? I didn't even say anythin' yet!"

"You don't have to. Your very existence is nauseating."

"I'll show you nauseatin'--!"

"Will you? I doubt you even know what the word means."

"I totally know! It means...uh..."

By the time Norma and Shirley let them out three hours later, three daggers were embedded in the wall above Harriet's bed and Moses wore Jay's hairband around his wrist. No one was quite sure what had happened (save the parties in question, who weren't about to divulge that), but ultimately, Norma pronounced phase three of Operation Love Capture a success.

Phase four, however, abruptly crashed and burned when Jay and Moses managed to overturn one of the restaurant tables during an argument. (Norma almost liked it better that way.)

---

13) "So let's see. We tried friendship, we tried Nerifes, we tried love. Nope, it looks like nothing's ever going to make them stop arguing."

"Why should I listen to you, you unwashed savage? You don't even brush your teeth."

"I do too! How the hell would you know, anyway?"

"It's quite simple. The only way you could possibly taste as bad as you do is if you failed to practice basic standards of hygiene."

"I happen to taste perfectly fine, thank you very much! I bet you're just embarrassed."

"I-I am not!" A pause. "You don't bathe either."

Norma sighed. "So, guys? How about we try the _fourth_-greatest power in the universe? Whatever that is."

---

14) For the record, Moses _does so_ bathe regularly. Also, Jay is a bastard. A midgety bastard.

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15) Their first fight was about five minutes after Norma pronounced the commencement of their relationship; it was about the use of the word 'boyfriend'. Moses thinks he won.

Their first _fight_, however, was considerably more complicated: it lasted two weeks, left both parties wholly miserable, and was due in large part to two seemingly minor details. One, that Jay, even after living with love for six years, was still rather uptight about it; two, that Moses had never been good enough with words to explain his worry properly at all.

It was about trust; ultimately, it was about the two of them and their relationship itself--you could not separate the fight from them.

---

16) About a week after everything exploded, first Shirley, then Senel, headed over to the Oresoren village. They remained tight-lipped about the entire affair, however, when Moses asked about it. "You can hear the story from Jay himself," Senel said. "I don't know what you're talking about," Shirley insisted. "I was talking to Pippo."

In any case, Senel turned out to be right: three days after that, Jay appeared right in front of Moses. Out of nowhere, as was his wont. He spoke stiffly, haltingly; he...knew what he wanted, he said, and--that was why he'd come.

Moses rested his chin on his knees and listened for a while. "I...care," he said finally. "I _care_. I'm sorry, all right? Don't--don't look like that."

Jay glanced towards the lighthouse. "I expect you'll have to be patient, bandit. Think that's too much for you?" It was surely meant to be a jab at him, but it didn't come out like one.

"Nah," said Moses. He grinned and reached for Jay's hairband. "You know, I keep tellin' you, you look better with it down."

---

17) "So, uh." Moses scratched the back of his head. "You got somewhere to stay tonight?"

"...I'm crashing with Senel," Jay said. He pulled his hair back with one hand, as if missing the feel of it tied back.

Moses looked left, looked right, then jumped in. "Why bother? I got a bed."

"Your bed, I presume," Jay retorted, snorting softly. "Why would I subject myself to sleeping in the same space as you?"

Moses' grin was impish. "Why not?"

Jay gave him a look. "Do you want that alphabetically, or sorted in order of importance?"

"I wasn't gonna try anything!" Moses protested, spreading his palms out in a gesture of peace.

"That wasn't my meaning," Jay replied dryly. He waited a couple seconds, then scowled, let his hair go. "..._fine_."

(Jay sleeps better when he doesn't sleep alone, but he isn't about to tell _Moses_ that.)

---

18) In Moses' opinion, Jay is--well, _prickly_ would be a good word for it. He keeps a steady stream of insults going, taking every opportunity he can to kneecap Moses and creating some where no openings are found. Even his assents are so wrapped up in insults they might as well not be assents at all. And yet...Moses has seen Jay vulnerable, has seen him giving regard to Moses, protecting Moses in his own way, getting angry not _at_ Moses, but for him. If Moses ever needed help, Jay would throw him cheerfully to the wolves. If Moses ever _really_ needed help, Jay would kill or die for him, without hesitation and without regrets. And do so much more than that.

Moses loves Jay--because he's prickly, because he's vulnerable, because he's determined to defend that which he cares about. (He wouldn't be able to put it as eloquently, but it's true nonetheless.)

---

19) Jay's feelings, as usual, are a little more complicated.

Moses Sandor is a gormless, reckless idiot who continues to have irritating delusions of competency. He has not, in fact, stopped being any of these things. What has happened is that...sometimes, Moses will say something that is plainly stupid and uninformed, so much so that it is _right_. Or he'll drape his arm around Jay at exactly the right time, even though he couldn't possibly have known it _was_ the right time. The entire affair is supremely irritating precisely because it is almost comforting.

Jay doesn't use the word 'love', for Moses or anyone else; the word as he knows it is not something he'd apply to his current situation, and he has better things to do than to go out seeking new meanings just to use it, especially when those meanings are apparently so difficult to capture. But what he _does_ feel essentially boils down to this: Moses cares, and he is slowly getting better at it.

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20) There are two great constants in Jay and Moses' relationship. The first is the arguing. The second...is that they trust each other. And that's as much as either of them could ask for.

FIN


End file.
